Mayoral aide's pay up 43% in 2 years

SALARY INCREASES BY THE NUMBERS

In her first two years of employment with National City, Mayor Ron Morrison's assistant, Josie Flores Clark, has received pay increases that have boosted her salary 43 percent. Her monthly pay since 2007:

$3,201: Flores Clark hired as an administrative secretary in July 2007.

$3,297: 3 percent cost-of-living raise in January 2008.

$3,976: 21 percent raise for reclassification to confidential assistant in January 2008.

An assistant to National City Mayor Ron Morrison has had her pay increased by 43 percent since she was hired two years ago, according to a city report that also shows what role the mayor played in obtaining those raises.

The complaints were made after Morrison circumvented the Civil Service Commission to get Flores Clark a promotion and 11 percent raise by asking the city manager to create a higher level job for her in July. She moved into the position last month.

Since 2007, her annual pay has gone from $38,412 to $55,116. She said this week she never asked for a raise.

Flores Clark was hired as an administrative secretary for the City Council in July 2007. Three months later Morrison asked the Human Resources Department to review her position to determine if it was properly classified, according to the department's Aug. 27 report.

The department recommended reclassifying Flores Clark's job to make it an “at-will” position, meaning it would be exempt from civil service protection and she could be fired without cause.

At-will positions are common in political offices, said Stacey Stevenson, director of human resources. If at-will employees need to be fired, it can happen swiftly, she said.

“One of the issues is that position becomes so tied to that elected official that if that elected official changes, that next person might want their own trusted person in that position,” Stevenson said.

Flores Clark said she objected to being moved out of a civil service-protected job.

“It was just taken away from me,” she said. “I have been fighting for that protection ever since.”

Last month, before the report was released, Morrison said Flores Clark was unfairly moved out of a civil service position. But, he didn't mention that the Human Resources Department showed him its recommendation or that he initiated the review of Flores Clark's job.

“It was taken away from her without her permission,” Morrison said in an interview in early August. “She has been very ill at ease with this whole thing being forced into an at-will position. She's not management, so she shouldn't be at-will. It was reverse preferential treatment to put her at an at-will status.”

Sotelo-Solis said Morrison's comments don't make sense.

“As a department head, he was the one who initially asked for it,” she said.

Asked about the report last week, Morrison said he only agreed to changing Flores Clark's job status to at-will at “the urging of Human Resources” officials. He said they were going to increase her pay to compensate her for the change and obtain her approval.

“And come to find out that neither one of those things were done,” Morrison said.

Human Resources Department records, however, show Flores Clark received a 21 percent salary increase at that point. Last week, Morrison at first said he didn't know about that raise, then said it wasn't enough.

Asked what salary he thought his assistant should be making, Morrison refrained from giving a dollar amount, but said Flores Clark is satisfied with her current salary.

“Personally, I think we're getting a huge bargain,” Morrison said. “She puts in a huge amount of hours and is out there seven days a week.”

Morrison also said Flores Clark was hired at a salary too low for her job duties, partly because of an overreaction to former Mayor Nick Inzunza's “excesses.” She deserved the raises, Morrison said.